GB298319A - Improvements in driving mechanism, shaft couplings and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

298,319. Huxley, M. F. Aug. 9, 1927. Shaft couplings; securing flywheel on shafts; universal joints. - Yielding couplings for shafts &c. comprise centrifugal masses connected to members on the shafts &c. by eccentrics. Radiallyacting springs may be provided to supplement the centrifugal force at low speed. Massive curved links 8, Fig. 3, receive eccentrics 9, 10 loosely mounted respectively on pins 6, 7. The pins 6, are carried by forked arms 1 on the end of a motor-vehicle engine crankshaft 2, and the pins 7 by the walls of a divided flywheel 3 connected to the driven shaft or clutch (not shown). The links 8 transmit drive rigidly a.t starting but resiliently at high speed, and are free from synchronous vibration effects. The universal coupling shown in Fig. 5, suitable for marine propeller shafts, oomprises shaft spiders 11, 13 carrying on pins 15, 17 spherical eccentrics 16, 18, which are connected by massive divided links 19. In a modification, the divided flywheel 26 of a motorvehicle engine is rotatable on the crankshaft 21, which has hollow radial arms 20 containing weak springs 23. The masses 22 receive, at their centre of gravity, eccentrics 24 on pins 25 carried by the fywheel, and slide freely on the arms 20. The radial springs 23, which are not deformed' by centrifugal force, provide cushioning- means at low speed. The hollow flywheel 26 forms an oil bath, fed from a bore of the crankshaft. The Provisional Specification states that the eccentrics may be replaced by cranks, and describes also a form in which each centrifugal mass is pivoted to an arm on one shaft and is connected by a link to an arm on the other shaft or to a similar mass pivoted to that arm.